Metapunctuation Book

Don't Stop With The Period

The richness of English comes from its enormous vocabulary—upward of a million words. But how many punctuation marks are available to help communicate all the subtlety and nuances of the language? A piddling handful of tired, overworked dots, dashes, and devices that fall short when it comes to delivering the written word as the writer intended it. Metapunctuation, the product of the brilliant if somewhat askew mind of Lewis Burke Frumkes, adds the absent flair and precision, ends ambiguity, and makes manifest all of English's unspoken jabs, frowns, inflections, passions, and innuendos with marks such as:

* phobic brackets to enclose fear gone wildly out of control

* infatuation marks to indicate a frivolous kind of love

* ring of indignation to really let 'em have it

* passion waves for prose ranging from purple to blue

* contempto-drips for utter disdain

Author Biography: Lewis Burkes Frumkes is a writer/humorist/teacher/broadcaster. In addition to the many books he has written, his writing has appeared in many venues, including Harper's, Punch and the New York Times. He has taught Humanities at Marymount Manhattan College and Harvard University. He lives in New York City.